When it came to the paint color decision for the doors in the back entry of my studio, I left the decision up to y’all. And after tallying over 600 votes, the deep, dark eggplant color was the clear winner. Here’s the mock-up I did showing the back doors painted white, the two side doors in the deep eggplant color, and the colorful curtains on the back door.

I decided to use the same eggplant color that I used on the buffet in our breakfast room (i.e., current temporary sitting room). That paint color is Black Sapphire from Behr.

So with my brand new quart of Behr Black Sapphire in hand, I began painting the studio doors. I started on the door on the left, which is the one that I had previous attempted to stain. Since all of those products (the Retique It primer and the stain) were water-based, I didn’t do a lot of prep work. I just did a little sanding over the stained area, and then painted the first coat. That first coat looked pretty rough! But the color was gorgeous.

I was a little concerned that a second coat of paint might make the doors too dark. The Black Sapphire buffet is sitting right by a wall of windows, so it’s always sitting in lots of natural light during the day. But the back entry of the studio doesn’t get as much natural light as the breakfast room. So I decided to wait and see.

The other door gave me a better idea of what it would look like with a second coat because this door started out black.

Here’s what that black door looked like after the first coat of Black Sapphire, which was still very wet when I took this picture.

I decided that it was a little bit too dark. Again, that color above was wet paint, and it would dry darker. Basically, I wanted the dry color to be like the wet color, so I decided to add just a little bit of white to the remaining paint in the one quart container. The entire amount of white was no more than half a tablespoon. But I think it was enough to make a slight difference with the second coat of paint.

So here’s what the doors look like now that they’re dry…

I might possibly add just a little more white and do one more coat on these doors, but I’m going to wait. I think with these doors being right next to the floral pattern on the curtains, which has that dark purple color in it, the color of the doors will be more obviously deep eggplant and not black.

I also bought a new curtain rod for the door. The curtain rod that used to be up there was black…

My first thought was to paint it gold and reuse it. I don’t have a problem with the idea of painting curtain rods. The curtain rods in our living room are painted, and I think they look great.

But painting curtain rods is such a hassle. The process is a pain, and then you have to be very careful installing them because the paint can easily scratch off until it’s fully cured, but that takes a long time (sometimes up to 30 days).

Then I had the idea to use the acrylic curtain rods that I used in our living room years ago.

I still have the acrylic curtain rods, but I no longer have the brackets. Those brackets were such a pain, so I vowed never to use them again, and I got rid of them. So if I ever find a use for the acrylic rods, I’ll need to find new brackets that can accommodate a 1.5-inch diameter curtain rod. Those are kind of hard to find.

But that’s exactly what I was looking for when I came across this beautiful curtain rod on Amazon.

I love the simple design of those brackets! So I just went ahead and ordered that curtain rod and rings. They won’t be here before Christmas, but that’s okay. There’s no way I can get the curtains made by then, anyway. So that will be one of the finishing projects that I’ll have to leave for the beginning of the year.

But it’s coming along, and I absolutely love these eggplant-colored doors! If I had to go with paint, this was definitely the right choice.